This fall, I made a wild culture by soaking some crab apples in starter-strength worth overnight. I waited about a month before tasting. It was excellent, a nice mix of apple and sour flavors. I pitched this culture into a 5-gallon batch made with lots of unmalted wheat. I intentionally mashed low, hoping it wouldn't convert and that I'd have some starches for the bacteria. I tasted the "Sour Blonde" for the first time. It's almost too good, hardly any sour/funk flavors at all. I'm hoping the souring bacteria will catch up to the yeast. The gravity has dropped from 1.052 to 1.020 (although it didn't taste sweet), so I'm hoping there's something for the bugs to munch on. I was thinking about gram staining a sample to see if any bacteria is present. There was something that looked like a pellicle, but it's fallen. Do I just leave this go and see what happens? It's been about two months now.

And I thought I was the only one who brewed a crabapple brett blonde. Mine never got as brettish as I hoped but it was still very tasty and the keg didn't last long. I just harvested and froze 24 pounds of crabapples, enough for 2 good batches.I left mine on the fruit for several months, racked to a keg and left it 6 months. It dried out nicely, developed a crisp apple flavor but the brett was subdued. I used a vial of Brett B and the dregs from a couple of bottles of Orval to make a starter, so I know the brett was active.